Self Reliance

Over the weekend I met up with an old friend. I hadn't seen her in a few weeks. She is such a good friend of mine, she let me sleep on the floor of her studio apartment after I moved from Boston to Los Angeles. For six weeks I slept on her floor. I moved across the country with a handful of money in my checking account and no job lined up.

We went out to a local restaurant got a few beers and some apps to munch on. Our conversation went down many different paths. She was moving from Los Angeles back to her home town of Chicago to pursue a promotion within her company. She was terrified and excited about the move. I shared about my recent change in life with my place of employment burning down. I also had a former coworker tell me to "fuck off" after I reached out and asked for some help. We laughed about our situations and we also contemplated about what the future might hold for us during these dynamic times in our lives.

She left me with a valuable nugget of wisdom I will not soon forget. She has lived in Los Angeles for about three years now. She said what this city has allowed her to do is selfishly work on herself. I say selfish but not in the classic definition of the word. This city, through various means, allows you to work on yourself. The weather allows you to develop some type of external joy and happiness. The surrounding population helps encourage some physical health. The various drives of the people you meet invite you to work on things you truly want to work on. There are so many creative people in LA. These people all want to work on their own thing. This allows you, with out reservation, to work on yours. After hearing this statement, it helped liberate a lot of the fears about the future.

There are many things in life that pull us from our goals. It could be FOMO, maybe it's relationships that positively or negatively pull us away from the goal, or perhaps I could be just laziness from getting up and doing the damn work that needs to be done.

My friend's nugget of advice did help give me and invitation to focus on myself and I invite you to do the same.